To our surprise and seemingly out of no where, earlier in the week, Sony and Amazon announced the Amazon Instant Video app for the PlayStation 3. The first of the major 3 consoles to receive this, the Amazon Instant Video app gives PS3 users the ability to buy and rent movies and TV shows with SD and HD options. Those with Amazon Prime get an added bonus and are able to access ‘Prime Instant Video’ section where they can stream select movies and TV shows with no added fee.

Amazon Prime membership costs $79/yr and also gives members 2 day free shipping on many Amazon items.Without an Amazon Prime membership, or movies and TV shows which are not part of ‘Prime Instant Video’ catalogue, users can still access content for a price which generally falls in the $2.99-$4.99 for SD/HD rentals and $15+ for HD movie purchases. Unlike Sony’s Video Unlimited which downloads the video to the PS3 hard drive, even if its rented, all Amazon content is streamed to your system. Even if you purchase the content, the file will always be yours to access from any device, capable of connecting to Amazon Instant Video, but only through streaming. With an easy to use interface and fast streaming of videos, we put together a video overview of the PlayStation 3 Amazon Instant Video app.

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